A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 500

A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 499

A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 498

This is an article that shows the issues with GPS enabled street maps. The problems that Shanghai drivers face when buying ‘fake’ maps is the same everywhere. I disagree with their use of the word ‘fake’, inaccurate is more realistic.

Since I am into historical geography and Historical GIS, I though I would change it up a little and showcase a nice site that uses ESRI’s ArcIMS to display GIS layers and historic maps of Shanghai, China. This project was done by a group at the University of Lyon in France

If you’re into volcanoes, the USGS is releasing a 20-minute video which gives a summary of activity at Mount St. Helens over the past year. Details of the release will be available after the news event today, which was scheduled for 10am PDT (1pm EDT)

I think it is safe for me to say that we are fans of Montgomery County. While I haven’t visited their offices myself, I know that Sue has along with other colleagues. They have been strong adopters of GIS, especially ESRI products thanks to working with the DC ESRI office. It is tough for something like this development blunder to happen, but at the same time, watching growth in the area from not so far away makes it not too surprising that it could happen. The problem is, as always, it is easier to ask forgiveness… find out what I am yammering about at GeoCarta: Plans Gone Awry

The European Space Agency has decided to extend the life of the Mars Express Spacecraft which is the platform for the radar sensor that has provided elevation and other information of Mars. For the full story head over to the BBC.

Data is data. Sure Google gives folks a great interface to view it, but aerial and sattelite images have been captured for decades. Archaeologists have found archaeological sites via aeiral photos since the 1960s, Roman Villas and all. Folks aware of remote sensing have been leaving things to be seen in images, for good and bad, for almost as long as RS has been around…ok rant complete. The start of Google Maps Messages?

If you want to know where to find anything about maps and mapping on the Internet, check out Odden’s Bookmarks. It’s a mapping-related links site maintained by the University of Utrecht Faculty of Geosciences that has a handy search function.

A British company is rolling out (no pun intended) a Pay-as-you-go GPS/Navigation system for cell phones. The vision is for it to be used by motorists in an ad hoc fashion to avoid traffic. What I think is interesting is all the computation is done back at the server end with the result pushed to the phone. They call it “off-board” navigation. I wonder if it could compete well with on all the time products like Onstar?

This is a feature article from the August issue of GeoWorld that gives an overview of open source GIS tools. Since I have to admit that I am not that familiar with using open source stuff for GIS applications, I thought it was a good introduction.